Episode 6139 (11/2/2010) – David Frum, Katrina vanden Heuvel

I’m not much for the super political heavy shows. Give me a good Cheating Death segment or Starbucks under the desk segment over political analysis any day. But I thought Stephen and the crew did well, and thought having the two guests, one moderate conservative, and one liberal, helped give some balance to the show and give some good commentary on the actual results of the election.

Loved the “Hawaii Five-0″ music intro. But the news of the reality of the Republican wave? Sad. You know, we’ve seen “Stephen” defeated by Democratic wins time and time again. Who can forget “The Word – Sigh” after the Midterm 2006 elections? But it was odd to see “Stephen” so happy when it seemed like Stephen was truly in direct opposition. Maybe fake anger is easier than fake happy?

What did you think of the live show? Leave it in the comments!

Intro Word: Hang 2010

Tonight we will be riding a barrel all the way to tax cut beach. Tonight we will be saying aloha to the Republicans and aloha to the Democrats.

Speaking of which, Styles Point Elementary, sloppy joes and corn niblets. Came as a shock to a lot of people.

That one ring, of course, is the ring of bronzer that John Boehner leaves in his bathtub.

So it is all but certain that Boehner will be the new speaker, unless out of pure habit he blocks his own confirmation.

Identity confirmed, welcome UnicornGirl18.

For instance, in Jackson County, West Virginia, machines have actually changed votes, which would explain why Candidates Error 404 page not found is headed to the House of Representatives.

Paul, of course, is a libertarian and a staunch opponent of government regulation of any kind, so congratulations, Kentucky, your state bird is now a can of lead paint.

Sarah Palin is the direction of the Republican party. Her endorsements were precious – 56 endorsements, one for every state, and she is the reason why they’re sweeping in.

The whole country needs a new wheel alignment it feels like.

If this is any indication, one of these two men will be our country’s next first black president.

He’s even being beaten by write-in candidate “Led Zeppelin Rules”.

I was going to say it for you, but I forgot we’re live.

Seriously, she’s insane. I once saw her give a speech to an empty service elevator.

Maybe one day there will be elections in the distant future. I don’t know. I’m not a psychic. Maybe one day I will be a psychic. I don’t know that either. As I said, I’m not a psychic.

Comments

Beautiful show. Was going to make a comment about hanging 10 but thought better of it. :) It was perfectly done and just what I needed to hear, and how did both Monday’s and Tuesday’s shows get to be so great? I was expecting them to be phoned in.

I know that livedash.com publishes the closed caption feed for the show (do a search for Comedy Central to find the latest show.). However, this is definitely not as ideal as it sounds.

The posts are sporadic at best, and never contain the entire show. They are also only available for a few days and not archived on the site. The transcript doesn’t show the text for the intro, for example, and they often stop the transcribing before the end of the show. As an example of the site’s sporadic nature, last night’s show is not yet posted, and Tuesday’s show stops after the line at the beginning of the interview where Stephen thanks Katrina vanden Heuvel for wearing a leather jacket. And, as is often the case in closed captioning, there’s always typos and incomplete sentences.

As far as a transcript goes, however, that’s as close as you’re going to get.

I just went back and watched it because I didn’t even notice the Reddit alien! That’s awesome! What a nice shout-out. And he must have drawn it himself because you can see him putting the cap back on his pen. Reddit sure appreciated the love – if you go to their site, Stephen’s drawing is the new icon next to the logo. :D

DB. Not to put to fine a point on it, but David Frum is not a “moderate conservative.” He’s just not insane. And thus seems moderate.
I was just amazed at how UP Stephen was during this show. A live show from 11:30pm to midnight, after working like a dog over the weekend, & still giving 110%. I was mighty impressed! Especially in comparison to Jon, who sort of looked like death warmed over last night. Of course that look could have been from that shameless a$$-kissing by the unctuous Michael Beschloss. Yuck! Oh! And UnicornGirl18! Surely if Stephen hadn’t been so tired he wouldn’t have let us see that! ;P

I’m glad people are mentioning how good the sign-off was. I just loved it! I think TCR actually did a much better job than The Daily Show last night. Their show was very disjunctive and Jon seemed tired and beaten down, which is to be expected. But Stephen brought the energy and the funny to a night that otherwise made me feel also rather tired and beaten down. I spent the night at a DFL victory party that turned out to be very long (we stayed till 2am) and pretty pointless because our Governor’s race is going to have to be recounted, just like our Senate race two years ago. Oh man!!! Minnesota is weird. Colbert was just the pick-me-up I needed.
I thought both interviews were really good too, with both guests giving Stephen a ton to work with. The Reddit shout-out (hey) was adorable and made me awwwww. Hey DB! You were looking for a new name for your phone? How about UnicornGirl18? hehehehe.

“I think TCR actually did a much better job than The Daily Show last night. Their show was very disjunctive and Jon seemed tired and beaten down, which is to be expected.”

Yeah, I agree. This kind of show is normally where TDS really shines, but aside from the John Oliver bit, it seemed like they were just going through the motions. Though in their defense, they’ve had a pretty exhausting last few weeks/months what with a new book, a week of shows in DC just last week, and planning and executing a massive rally. The poor dears.

I like that the sign-off is getting so much love, that was the best part of the show for me. Satirically, it was brilliant, and Stephen pretty much captured my feelings about the midterm elections. To have so many people, on both sides of the aisle, make it sound like time has officially stopped and that this was the election to end all elections is a tad unsettling. No, the results weren’t what I’d hoped for, especially in my own state, but here’s the thing – the sun still came up today and I still went about my day. Worse things have happened and we’re all going to be just fine. :)

But anyway. The best line of the night for me, and actually one of the funniest lines I’ve heard in a while was “Maybe one day there will be elections in the distant future. I don’t know. I’m not a psychic. Maybe one day I will be a psychic. I don’t know that either. As I said, I’m not a psychic.” I laughed so hard when I heard it, and then I calmed down and then thought about it again, and I still laughed just as hard. It’s such a silly joke, and I love it. :) Also, was that Peter Gwinn as the voter from Hawaii in the first segment? I feel like I’m slowly getting better at the “Hey! Who’s That Writer?” game. :P

I have to say I was a little disappointed that they didn’t actually utilize the set from the commercial. Partly because it was such an AWESOME set (and I would have liked to have seen Stephen guarding the line or negotiating passage with TDS correspondents all night) and partly because it would have meant more joint Jon & Stephen time, and that’s always a big win.

I was disappointed that he and Jon didn’t come together to do the show. After the promos, that was my hope. Interestingly, however, my DVR, which is always set to record TDS and TCR, didn’t go on for this, almost as if it were a different show. (No problem, I was there watching.)

In addition to the fact that I’d have loved to see them work together, I imagine it would have been easier for the two tired guys to feed off each other.

In the end, though, I was so depressed by the time I turned the shows on — except for the fact that Palladino lost the election for governor in my state — it was hard to feel joy at anything. I know I couldn’t have acted as sprightly as they both did, given how I was feeling. :-(